Back Page Issue 17

Copyright © 1997 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
For information regarding copying and distribution of this material see the Copying License.

About This Month's Authors

Larry Ayers

Larry Ayers lives on a small farm in northern Missouri, where he is currently engaged in building a timber-frame house for his family. He operates a portable band-saw mill, does general woodworking, plays the fiddle and searches for rare prairie plants, as well as growing shiitake mushrooms. He is also struggling with configuring a Usenet news server for his local ISP.

Kendall G. Clark

Kendall Clark is a PHD candidate in systematic theology at Southern Methodist University. He is hard at work on his dissertation using Red Hat 4.1, LaTeX, and AucTeX & Xemacs. He helped found NTLUG in the summer of 1996 with Stephen Denny and Tim Jones and currently serves as Acting President. He makes his home with his wife Hope in Dallas, Texas.

Jim Dennis

Jim Dennis is the proprietor of Starshine Technical Services. His professional experience includes work in the technical support, quality assurance, and information services (MIS) departments of software companies like Quarterdeck, Symantec/ Peter Norton Group, and McAfee Associates -- as well as positions (field service rep) with smaller VAR's. He's been using Linux since version 0.99p10 and is an active participant on an ever-changing list of mailing lists and newsgroups. He's just started collaborating on the 2nd Edition for a book on Unix systems administration. Jim is an avid science fiction fan -- and was married at the World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim.

Sean Dreilinger

Sean Dreilinger suffered through two years of Los Angeles smog for a Masters degree in library/information systems at UCLA. Linux swept him off his feet in grad school and turned into a Network Administration career for the University. Consulting on Internet strategy and info-system design in assorted bored-rooms followed. Today he beams-in to www.interactivate.com from a remote mountain cabin near Cuyamaca, California and is only required to show his face at work once a week--nice job for the outdoors-loving and socially inept. He lives with his lover Kathy and this incredible high-altitude silence--punctuated only by the sound of wind rustling in the Manzanita trees, hummingbirds fighting for a perch on the feeder, and that reassuring whir of SCSI drives dancing with Linux under the desk. More life story with explicit photos can be found at http://www.interactivate.com/people/sean/.

Jon "maddog" Hall

Jon "maddog" Hall is Senior Leader of Digital UNIX Base Product Marketing, Digital Equipment Corporation.

Michael J. Hammel

Michael J. Hammel, is a transient software engineer with a background in everything from data communications to GUI development to Interactive Cable systems--all based in Unix. His interests outside of computers include 5K/10K races, skiing, Thai food and gardening. He suggests if you have any serious interest in finding out more about him, you visit his home pages at http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel. You'll find out more there than you really wanted to know.

Rick Hohensee

Rick Hohensee is a guitar bum and former construction executive who has so many irons in the fire he can't keep the fire going. Visit him on the web at http://cqi.com/~humbubba.

Mike List

Mike List is a father of four teenagers, musician, printer (not laserjet), and recently reformed technophobe, who has been into computers since April,1996, and Linux since July.

Jesper Pedersen

Jesper Pedersen lives in Odense, Denmark, where he has studied computer science at Odense University since 1990. He expects to obtain his degree in a year and a half. He has a great job as a system manager at the university, and also teaches computer science two hours a week. He is very proud of his "child," The Dotfile Generator, which he wrote as part of his job at the university. The idea for it came a year and a half ago, when he had to learn how to configure Emacs by reading about 700 pages of the lisp manual. It started small, but as time went by, it expanded into a huge project. In his spare time, he does Yiu-Yitsu, listens to music, drinks beer and has fun with his girl friend. He loves pets, and has a 200 litre aquarium and two very cute rabbits.

Jay Painter

Jay Painter is the Systems Administrator at SSC.

Not Linux

Thanks to all our authors, not just the ones above, but also those who wrote giving us their tips and tricks and making suggestions. Thanks also to our new mirror sites. And many, many thanks to Amy for doing most of the work this month.

Seattle--always a wonderful event. Riley and I spent the morning working in the yard, clearing out a flower bed that was overgrown with grass. It felt like hard physical labor after sitting at a desk all week. We rewarded ourselves by taking a spin on the motorcycle along the Sound. Even as passenger there is something about riding on a motorcycle that puts a smile on my face. I guess it helps that I have complete trust in Riley's driving abilities.

Afterward I went to the Opera House for a talk about Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi (or Joe Green, as Riley likes to call him). I had seen the opera itself on Wednesday night--a silly story as usual but, oh, such wonderful music! I think it has to be one of my favorites. At any rate the talk was informative and fun and made a nice end to a very wonderful day.

Have fun!

Marjorie L. Richardson
Editor, Linux Gazette gazette@ssc.com